#ZlatanStyle – the Winners in Greece!

Ask anyone about Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and they’ll tell you that the Swedish striker is famous for scoring some of the most beautiful goals in contemporary football. To celebrate the Greek release of documentary Becoming Zlatan, which follows the star as a young player and discusses how he feels that youth football saved him, we thought we’d invite budding strikers aged 6–18 to share their gorgeous goals, #ZlatanStyle. The next generation of footballing superstars are looking pretty nifty if you ask us.

Gilberto Silva and Diamanti Chouchoumi meet the next generation of football stars, at a screening of Becoming Zlatan

Young players from all over the country submitted their videos, and a panel of judges including legendary Greek footballer Dimitris Saravakos selected three winners, who will all get to visit Panathinaikos FC and meet the players, and eight runners-up.

Meet our three young Zlatans of the future:

Thodoris Sotiriadis (8)

Brilliant control and some extraordinary passing given the age of the young players, resulting in a beautiful lob right over the keeper’s head.

Marios-Yiannis Tagaris (12)

A deft pass through the defence, which finds the striker in space, ends with a perfect finish in the top corner which is impossible for the keeper to stop.

Chara Papadopoulou (18)

An unexpected cross-cum-shot sliced in from near the corner flag – an incredibly difficult angle to score from, but the ball somehow rockets in past the near post.

Have a look at all eleven of our talented young players in our super #ZlatanStyle goal mash-up:

Along with our top three, runners-up Dimitris Douras, Konstantinos Bonelis, Christos-Efraim Darviras, Markos Spatharis, Orfeas Ioannidis, Panagiotis Konstantinidis, Konstantinos Protogeros and Christos Skarligos were also invited to a special screening of Becoming Zlatan on Saturday 12 November in Danaos Cinema, Athens, in collaboration with Panathinaikos FC, to meet some of their footballing heroes.

Juan Ramón Rocha and Gilbert Silva meet some of the football stars of tomorrow

Brazilian legend Gilbert Silva, Zlatan’s former Swedish international teammate Mikael Nilsson, veteran Argentine footballer Juan Ramón Rocha, still considered one of Panathinaikos’ greatest ever players, and young rising Greek International and Panathinaikos FC star Diamanti Chouchoumi all took part in a panel discussion after the film.

Mikael Nilsson signs a fan’s strip

In a particularly sweet moment, young fan Petros Bourkoulas even got to present Gilberto with a portrait he’d drawn of him!